Irons are generally composed of a housing, usually of a synthetic resin, to which a soleplate is connected. Said soleplate is customarily made of aluminum, but it can alternatively be made from zinc, nickel, copper or stainless steel. In general, a separate layer, which is commonly referred to as anti-friction layer, is applied to the surface of the soleplate facing away from the housing of the iron. During ironing, this anti-friction layer directly contacts the clothes to be ironed. A prerequisite for the proper functioning of the iron is that such an anti-friction layer meets a large number of requirements. For example, the anti-friction layer must, inter alia, exhibit satisfactory anti-friction properties on the clothes to be ironed, it must be corrosion-resistant, scratch-resistant, and durable and exhibit an optimum hardness and a high resistance to wear and to fracture. The material of the anti-friction layer must meet extra high requirements because the anti-friction layer is exposed to substantial variations in temperature ranging between 10.degree. C. and 300.degree. C. Some of said requirements are more or less contradictory from the viewpoint of materials science.
An iron of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph is known per se, for example, from European Patent Application EP-A 217.014. The iron described in said Application comprises a soleplate of aluminum, which is provided with an anti-friction layer of a ceramic material, preferably aluminum oxide. This anti-friction layer is provided by means of plasma spraying. In this process, spherical aluminum oxide particles having a diameter of, for example, 10 microns are heated by means of a plasma jet and sprayed onto the soleplate. In this process, a bonded ceramic layer of aluminum-oxide particles is formed. Subsequently, this anti-friction layer is polished to obtain the desired smoothness.
The known iron has disadvantages. It has been found that the ceramic anti-friction layer has a relatively high porosity and a relatively low corrosion resistance. In addition, the anti-friction properties, particularly the anti-stick properties, of the known layer are not optimal and keeping the layer clean as well as cleaning it has proved to be difficult. Finally, the processes of providing and polishing the anti-friction layer are expensive and cannot easily be carried out in mass-production.